maternal_deathfandomcom-20200214-history
Maternal Death Reporting
Center for Disease Control Another problem within the healthcare system is inconsistencies in reporting maternal deaths. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) found that between the 1980s and 1990s maternal deaths were underreported, prompting a pregnancy section to be added to the United States death certificate in 2003. This question defines if the woman was pregnant or had been pregnant within the last year. Data was inconsistent due to delay in the adoption and or use of non standard questions throughout states (MacDorman, Declerce,' '''Cabral, & Morton, 2016, Introduction section, p. 2, para. 2). The inconsistent data is a huge reason for the CDCs absence of reports since 2007 (Belluz, 2017, para. 33). Deficient reports from the CDC mean that maternal death rates in the United States have not been published internationally either. With little to no statistics and reporting, the issue receives less examination and frustration towards the topic of maternal death, compared to infant mortality that is widely published and funded (MacDorman et al., 2016, Discussion section, p. 8, para. 6). Reporting changes have prompted skeptics to argue that the rising maternal deaths in the United States may be due to the country improving reporting itself, as well as more competently than most other countries. Although there may be some correlation, federal health officials say the increase is due to more than reporting changes (Tavernise, 2016, para. 11). '''Figure 1: Maternal Mortality Trend' Almendrala, A. (2014). The U.S. is the only developed nation with rising maternal mortality rate. The Huffington Post. '' Retrieved from. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/19/us-maternal-mortality-rate_n_5340648.html '''Statistical Considerations' California and Texas are outliers in the unofficial maternal death statistics for the United States. These two states were reported separately in maternal death due to the large population and differences in reporting. California made changes on its own in 2006 when they put a pregnancy assisted mortality review into effect. The efforts to reduce maternal death has since proved to be effective and have provided ground work for other states to implement the same (MacDorman et al., 2016, Discussion section, p. 7, para. 2). Texas on the other hand, implemented the death certificate standard in 2006. Since then, Texas has expressed a doubling in maternal death rates between 2006 and 2012. The biggest change that occurred within the state was shutting down the women’s health clinics however, it is said that this would not account for such a large increase. Due to the abnormal figures, research is being done to identify the cause or miscalculation to understand the findings (MacDorman et al., 2016, Discussion section, p. 7, para. 3). Outliers in data are not rare especially when there is no standard. Data around the world is difficult to trend due to the lack of information and differences in reporting. In the United States, maternal deaths are often hard to count due to the lack of detail on death certificates (Tavernise, 2016, para. 11) just as it is difficult around the world by some countries using electronic or paper certificates with the same discrepancies or simply no reporting technique at all. Exact numbers for the leading causes of maternal death are unavailable due to the lack of standardization. Proper policies and procedures that are ideally the same worldwide, would make reporting findings of maternal deaths caused by hemorrhage and preeclampsia easier, therefore improving research, care, and number of deaths.